1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is concerned with a holder for a component and a conveyor line in which the holder is used.
2. Description of Related Art
In particular in the production technology, the material handling or transportation of goods is of particular importance. For transportation of various goods, products, components and the like, a wide range of conveyor systems are being used. One of the best known transportation facilities in the material handling is the so-called continuous conveyor, of which the belt conveyor is the most common representative. This is well-known in a wide range of variants. The components mentioned above are positioned at regular or irregular intervals on a so-called belt or a band. The drive of the belt, on which subsequently several of the components are placed, is usually driven via a central drive unit. Although this allows a continuous conveying of the different components, all components inevitably move with a common, same speed, which corresponds to the speed of the belt or the band.
Especially modern or complex logistics and conveyor systems often require that different components with different transport speeds must be conveyed on the same transportation facility. For example, a separation process may bring about such a requirement. In order to close any gaps in the product flow caused by the separation, the components must be appropriately accelerated or delayed, or at least moved at different speeds. In this context, particularly long stator linear motors, often referred to as LLM, are being used advantageously to implement a corresponding conveyor line.
The stator of a long stator linear motor is formed by a certain number of electric driver coils. Their concatenation results in a corresponding conveyor line. The previously mentioned components are arranged on mobile transportation units which comprise excitation magnets. In a manner known per se, these excitation magnets can be designed as permanent magnets or in the form of electric coils, hence as electromagnets.
The driver coils of the stator are often controlled individually, resulting in the control of a moving magnetic field. The individual transportation units are thereby put in motion along the conveyor line, depending on which driver coils are controlled. Due to the fact that the driver coils are controlled independently of one another, also several transportation units on a conveyor line can be moved independently of one another. Moreover, using the corresponding control, these can be moved or accelerated or delayed at different speeds of transport. This allows an optimal adaptation to the requirements of a logistics system and thus bring related economic benefits. Existing facilities, for example for further processing of components, can be optimally exploited because the transportation facility can transport or deliver different components at the best possible cycle time and thus optimize the product flow. The low number of wear parts of a long stator linear motor reduces maintenance costs, or individual transportation units can be replaced easily without major expenditure.
If the driver coils of the stator are carrying current, this results in a corresponding heating of the stator. Because the stator is held or positioned in a holder, the heating and the associated expansion of the stator causes mechanical stresses in the stator. This can in turn lead to correspondingly unwanted or uncontrolled deformations. Required position or form tolerances cannot be maintained in a comprehensible manner.